The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.

He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.

I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.

You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.

It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.

Every country has the government it deserves.

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.